COMMENTS: Casey Blake and Carlos Monasterios stepped up for the Dodgers yesterday. Who will step up today? I'll tell you who it won't be: Vicente Padilla, who was placed on the 15-day DL for sorearm foreness. Or forearm soreness. Whatever. Anyway, a win today would mean a series win against the Nationals, which would go a long way to making Dodger fans feel better about our next series against the equally mediocre Mets.

I am happy we are in the NL West though. Lots of Joe's Yankees teams got off to underwhelming starts, as did the Yanks and Phils last year (Yanks 9-8, Phils 8-8 on last April 25th)

I don't think we are as talented as either of those teams, but I think we are playing way below our potential. Joe's Yankees teams always seemed to eventually play to their potential. I think the Pads are playing way out of their gourds and the Snakes and VaGiants are playing how we expected. Colorado may turn things on at some point, but I think Jim Tracy won't let them do that